Penny Warner: Guest Post on How to Survive a Killer Seance

Today I welcome back Penny Warner, party planner and mystery author. I saw that Penny set her latest Presley Park Event Planner novel at the Winchester Mystery House in San Jose, and I knew I wanted her to guest blog about it. I've done multiple mystery events (Murder on the Menu) at the Winchester Mystery House, and I can tell you first hand, it's just perfect for a 'murder' and a 'seance'. It's one of the most unique and quirky places.

Give-away: Penny Warner is offering two prizes 1) a signed copy of How to Survive a Killer Seance. 2) a CSI-style evidence bag (great for keeping your lunch safe in the community fridge at work).  Make a comment below about Seances, Penny Warner, Winchester Mystery House, or why you would like one of the Giveaways. Winner will be picked by random system. I'll post the two winners here on 3/16. Be sure and stop back to check. At that time I'll need your address. Thanks.

PENNY WARNER:

Thanks for letting me party on your blog. I've written a lot of how-to party books so I thought it would be fun to have a party planner solve mysteries, the way she solves problems throughout an event. And what better place to discover a major party foul --a murder--than at a party, especially when it's set at a famous "haunted house."

HOW TO SURVIVE A KILLER SÉANCE, the third book in the Presley Parker Event Planner mystery series, is set at the Winchester Mystery House—the perfect place for a murder, don’t you think? Her newest gig is a séance party where her client, Jonathan Ellington, plans to use the event to unveil his new “4-D” holographic technology. His goal—to bring former owner Sarah Winchester “back from the dead.”

Naturally the stunt backfires when a disembodied voice accuses Ellington of infidelity in front of his wife and business associates. Before you can say “Eeny meeny jelly beany, the spirits are about to speak,” (Bullwinkle the Moose), the techie who’s monitoring the holograph is found murdered. Suspicion falls on Ellington, but as Presley tries to get at the truth, she doesn’t need a Ouija board to tell her someone wants to scare her to death…

I like Presley because, like me, she has a sense of humor in the face of danger, she has a touch of attention deficit disorder (Look! There’s a squirrel!) and she thinks she can tell a lot about a person by the shoes they wear (I wear Mary Janes, which obviously means I never grew up....)

Of course, Presley is a lot braver than I am. She isn't afraid to snoop anywhere, not even in a 160-room haunted house. Me, I'd call the police. But she's smart when she gets into trouble, thanks to the luxury of a pre-plotted story and always has something handy when she finds herself in trouble. I never seem to have anything I need handy when I need it in an emergency. And I wish I had somebody carefully plotting my life….

3/17: AND THE WINNER OF A SIGNED COPY OF PENNY WARNER'S HOW TO SURVIVE A KILLER SEANCE IS PENNY T.  Happy Reading! Be sure and stop by again.